Arrest people who drive with babies on lap
Mar 15, 2010
I live in a supposedly upmarket area near Kampala, in a neighbourhood with people who are most likely educated. I conclude this because of their living standard indicators.
By Denis Jjuuko
I live in a supposedly upmarket area near Kampala, in a neighbourhood with people who are most likely educated. I conclude this because of their living standard indicators.
It is common to find them on weekends feeling every inch rich or middle class — in Uganda’s case showing off their latest possessions including iPhones, cars, girlfriends and offspring.
This showing off of children would not be a problem had they remembered that it is very dangerous to drive a car while carrying a child on your lap.
Everytime I see parents happily driving a car with a child on their lap, I lose my senses. How can an educated person fail to realise that a baby or child is never safe on the lap of the driver or even in the front seat?
In countries like the US, it is criminal for any child below 12 years to occupy the front seat. This is the reason why front doors of any car do not even have child lock facilities because it is unacceptable for infants to occupy them. In case of an accident, how will a parent driving a car while holding their sweet baby save them from hitting their little chest on the steering wheel or the windscreen?
How will such parents save their children from being suffocated by airbags? Adults can survive the impact of protruding front airbags because they will hit the chest. For a child below 12 years, the airbag would most likely hit the face thereby suffocating the child.
If you love your child to death, why don’t you provide the best safety measures while travelling, by ensuring that you have a baby car seat, which is fastened by a safety belt in the back seat and even apply child locks? But in Uganda, because we ‘love’ the children so much, we even ask adults to vacate the front seat because Junior will cry if he is not allowed to be next to dad.
The Police should start arresting drivers who either carry their babies while driving or allow children below the age of 12 to occupy the front seat.
If the law is not yet in our books, it should be immediately initiated. This will reduce the risk of children dying in simple accidents because of carelessness of their parents.
The writer is a media consultant
I live in a supposedly upmarket area near Kampala, in a neighbourhood with people who are most likely educated. I conclude this because of their living standard indicators.
It is common to find them on weekends feeling every inch rich or middle class — in Uganda’s case showing off their latest possessions including iPhones, cars, girlfriends and offspring.
This showing off of children would not be a problem had they remembered that it is very dangerous to drive a car while carrying a child on your lap.
Everytime I see parents happily driving a car with a child on their lap, I lose my senses. How can an educated person fail to realise that a baby or child is never safe on the lap of the driver or even in the front seat?
In countries like the US, it is criminal for any child below 12 years to occupy the front seat. This is the reason why front doors of any car do not even have child lock facilities because it is unacceptable for infants to occupy them. In case of an accident, how will a parent driving a car while holding their sweet baby save them from hitting their little chest on the steering wheel or the windscreen?
How will such parents save their children from being suffocated by airbags? Adults can survive the impact of protruding front airbags because they will hit the chest. For a child below 12 years, the airbag would most likely hit the face thereby suffocating the child.
If you love your child to death, why don’t you provide the best safety measures while travelling, by ensuring that you have a baby car seat, which is fastened by a safety belt in the back seat and even apply child locks? But in Uganda, because we ‘love’ the children so much, we even ask adults to vacate the front seat because Junior will cry if he is not allowed to be next to dad.
The Police should start arresting drivers who either carry their babies while driving or allow children below the age of 12 to occupy the front seat.
If the law is not yet in our books, it should be immediately initiated. This will reduce the risk of children dying in simple accidents because of carelessness of their parents.
The writer is a media consultant